Dredges are commonly used to remove sediments from the bottom areas of various types of bodies of water. Such bottom areas are herein described as a “water-beds.” For example, dredges may remove silt from a riverbed, sand from a seabed, or other materials from other types of water-beds. Dredges typically comprise a hull which floats on top of the water. A boom with a cutterhead can be pivotally attached to the hull. As such, when the cutterhead is in a lowered position, i.e., with the cutterhead positioned adjacent to the water-bed, the cutterhead can be operated in combination with a pump to stir up and remove a slurry of water-bed material from the body of water.
During operation, the cutterhead is required to output a significant amount of force to stir up and agitate the material on the water-bed so as to create a slurry that can be pumped away. Traditional dredges have implemented cutterheads that include a rotatable cutterbar within a shroud. With the cutterhead positioned adjacent to the water-bed, the rotatable cutterbar is generally configured to grind into the water-bed and churn water-bed material, such that the water-bed material can be fluidized into a slurry capable of being pumped away to a barge or to an adjacent shore. Nevertheless, in circumstances in which the water-bed material is hard or solid, the cutterhead may not have sufficient power to sufficiently fluidize the water-bed material. Furthermore, even if the rotatable cutterbar is capable of at least partially fluidizing the water-bed material, the shroud of the cutterhead may make frictional contact with the water-bed, thereby restricting the cutterhead's travel about the water-bed and inhibiting dredging operations.